Our main thoughts are elsewhere - Michelin

World championship leader Fernando Alonso (Renault/Michelin) will start tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix from the front row of the grid after posting a 1m 13.962s lap in today's qualifying session. He was fractionally slower than Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), but the Spaniard was unable to improve his time at the end of the session because Schumacher ran wide and stopped at La Rascasse. The resultant yellow warning flags obliged the following drivers to slow down.

Six Michelin drivers from four partner teams have secured places in the top 10. Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren Mercedes) was fourth ahead of Giancarl o Fisichella (Renault, fifth), Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren Mercedes, sixth), Rubens Barrichello (Honda, seventh) and David Coulthard (Red Bull, ninth).

Nick Shorrock, Michelin Formula One director "Our main thoughts are elsewhere"

"The session was notas traumatic as many had anticipated in terms of on-track incidents, although there was one at the end that obviously compromised some of our partners' efforts to improve their lap times."

Technically speaking, our products performed very satisfactorily and we have had no problems at all. Between them our six partners have chosen to use two different types of tyre tomorrow and both have shown themselves to be ideally suited to the conditions.

But of course, while everyone at Michelin has proven their professionalism today, our main thoughts have been for the family of Edouard Michelin. While we haven't taken pole position, I hope that we can be successful in tomorrow's race out of respect for a fantastic leader and a great man."

Pat Symonds, executive engineering director, Renault F1 Team "All in all, it is an excellent performance from Michelin this week-end."

"Monaco brings demands on tyres unlike any other track we visit all year. It takes original thinking to produce a good tyre for this circuit and that is just what Michelin has shown. They are performing extremely well on the first lap and have stood up to the punishment of the many practice laps we have done. All in all, it is an excellent performance from Michelin this weekend."